


Excuses

by firstbreaths



Category: How I Met Your Mother
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-12
Updated: 2013-11-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 06:54:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1041709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstbreaths/pseuds/firstbreaths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Round 1 of the Challenge Accep-Ted Challenge (rofl) at <a href="http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/profile"><img class="i-ljuser-userhead"/></a><a class="i-ljuser-username" href="http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/"><b>barneyrobin</b></a> , based on the prompt 'magic', and originally posted <a href="http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/572829.html">here</a>. I ended up coming second, which okay -- totally unexpected, but also totally amazing. ♥ All the fic is worth checking out, not just the ones which placed -- this fandom is lucky enough to have some incredibly talented people.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Excuses

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Round 1 of the Challenge Accep-Ted Challenge (rofl) at [](http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/profile)[ **barneyrobin**](http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/) , based on the prompt 'magic', and originally posted [here](http://barneyrobin.livejournal.com/572829.html). I ended up coming second, which okay -- totally unexpected, but also totally amazing. ♥ All the fic is worth checking out, not just the ones which placed -- this fandom is lucky enough to have some incredibly talented people.

Barney Stinson is determined to make Robin Scherbatsky believe in magic.

She watches him now, twirling a wand between his fingers, hopeful and jaded all at the same time. Robin gets that, she thinks -– there’s a certain kind of desperation, sometimes unrecognised, in constantly having to come up with new illusions, new tricks. Robin’s seen enough of his tricks to know how this works, not least his sleight of hand which ended up with her skin sliding beneath his fingers and the lapels of his suit jacket caught up in her fists.

There’s a girl at the bar who screams _stupid!_ and _naive!_ and it goes like this; one beer, two coins appearing behind the girl’s ears and the inevitable plethora of Harry Potter innuendos Barney will have thought up by the following morning. (Last time, he’d started with “what’s up? My wand” and she’d found herself easing into the laughter, her cheeks flushing as Barney hi-fived her, secretly wishing there was a spell to help heal aching hearts).

Honestly, if you asked Robin _why_ she doesn’t believe in magic, she’d scoff and say that it’s because she’s been heartbroken too many times before and even if Ron got Hermione, Peter Pan was stuck in his youth forever and for all Merlin’s wisdom, he never stopped Lancelot and Guinevere fucking each other over, but Robin Scherbatsky –- she’s not the type to make excuses. (And even if she was -– which she _isn’t_ , okay -– she wouldn’t make metaphors about love and magic when Barney’s nearby, anyway).

“You can’t seriously think that’s going to work on anyone, can you Barney?” she says now as he brandishes the firecracker with an exaggerated twirl and already she can sense his reply -– _challenge accep-Ted_. It’d have more weight if Ted was actually _in_ the room, but Barney’s Barney and he’s never going to let a few trivialities get in the way of these things.

Never has let a few trivialities get in the way of things, actually. Like the fact that he’s waxing poetic in front of his ex-girlfriend about how the girl he’s about to bang is totally a Slytherin because she’s _bad_ , Robin, _get it?_ It’s enough to make her not want to believe in _anything_ , ever again, least of all magic.

But when Barney wraps his arm around Robin’s after a laser tag competition and his hand is warm on her shoulder, when their fingers brush as they reach for the scotch, lost in argument about Ted’s latest girlfriend and whether or not New York could survive the zombie apocalypse, there’s that swoop of her stomach and that shudder down her spine that makes her want to press her mouth against his and fall for all his tricks again. It’s a different kind of magic than rabbits in top hats and card decks, for sure – but it’s magic, nonetheless.

Oh crap, she thinks. Barney’s Stinson’s got Robin Scherbatsky under his spell.

(And like it or not, she’s got no excuses for that.)


End file.
